Fido 2006 Lions Gate Home Entertainment Official Website Buy It Now

A few zombie films have teased at the idea of domesticating the living dead. The idea is brought up in Day of the Dead and very briefly seen at the end of Shaun of the Dead. However, no one has really taken the concept to heart and tried to make it into something more, at least not until now. But, this isn’t a splatter-fest but instead, a “zomedy,” and probably one of the best ones to come along since the movie that made laughing at the living dead so much fun; Shaun of the Dead.

Fido is set in an alternate 1950’s where the Earth passed through a strange space anomaly and radioactive dust brought the dead back to life. It seemed that Earth was doomed, at least until the folks over at Zomcom uncovered the means to destroying them; the classic shot in the head. The company also found the means to domesticate the zombies thanks to an electronic collar and now the most mundane and thankless tasks are handled by zombies.

Zombies in fact are the wave of the future, and Helen Robinson (Carrie-Anne Moss) has finally got one for her family, though he husband Bill (Dyland Bkaer) isn’t pleased about it. Even their son Timmy (K'Sun Ray) has some reservations about it, at least until their new servant saves him for the school bullies and soon the zombie even has a name; Fido (Billy Connolly.) The zombie though has killed the Robinson’s next door neighbor after his collar temporarily malfunctioned and Timmy is trying to cover the incident and now that the new head of Zomcom, Jonathan Bottoms (Henry Czerny) has moved in next door, keeping Fido’s habits a secret isn’t going to be easy.

After the release of Shaun of the Dead, a number of different writers and directors tried their hand at a zomedy, and the results really weren’t that impressive, but Fido is the film that manages to perfectly mirror the United Kingdom’s reintroduction of zombie comedy. You can think of this film as being the tale of a boy and his dog . . . I mean, zombie. Timmy is the classic bullied kid who has no friends, but soon, Fido becomes the only dead soul that he can count on. Without friends and a father who is more or less emotionally absent, it makes perfect sense, though dad has a traumatic past from having to kill his own father during the Zombie Wars after he made the turn.

Fido though isn’t just a fantastic comedy where the living dead are the focus, but it’s also a great twist on the 50’s. The producers and set designers went to some great lengths to try and replicate the look and feel of the era, though Zomcom rules everything. Thanks to them, every city has a security fence put around it and a means to call for assistance immediately if a zombie’s control collar should malfunction. Zomcom apparently also rules the automotive industry as every car you see has a “z” as the hood ornament. They also are in control, more or less, of the zombie work force. You’ll see zombies delivering milk, delivering newspapers, but the ones that belong to people are even more enjoyable. Zombies will be seen on leashes, holding umbrella’s to keep the sun off their owners, and there are even some people, like Mr. Theopolis (Tim Blake Nelson) who have female zombies, Tammy in this case, that they used behind closed doors. Yes, Fido does hint at necrophilia, though if it’s a zombie, the real question is, does it become something other?

The film is ripe with humor, not just the hilarity of an alternate 1950 or zombies as domesticated servants, but there are other things as well. It’s not often that you see an elderly woman get beaten down with a shovel, especially by a young boy, though in his defense, she was a zombie. It’s a great moment that has an almost Evil Dead homage to it. While most movies feature the zombies as the enemy and the real threat, that’s not actually the case here. Instead, it’s the humans, and Jonathan Bottoms really is the real threat who stands between Timmy and Fido. There are plenty of humorous moments with Timmy out playing with his zombie, taking him down to the old swimmin’ hole, frolicking in the forest with him and so forth. Think Lassie meets Night of the Living Dead here.

Yes, there is gore, though not a great deal, but Fido honestly works perfectly without gallons of fake blood seen everywhere. Billy Connolly as a rotting corpse takes some getting used to, but the effects team did a brilliant job I feel, and even better on some of the other zombies, though many of them are only briefly seen. Fido also goes against the grain so to speak as most of the new zombie films want to feature fast undead, but they are absent from the movie completely, and I’m very pleased about that.

Lionsgate usually includes a number of bonus features with their DVD releases, and all of us appreciate that (even if we have been relegated to purchasing and renting their titles for review for whatever reason.) Fido does include quite a few extras starting with commentary from director Andrew Currie, producer Mary Anne Waterhouse and Carry-Anne Moss. The Fido Family Portraits section includes conceptual art, a look at Connolly’s transformation from the living to the dead, and a visual storybook that is the overall plot of the film in around five minutes and is definitely worth watching. There is also a making of feature, a blooper reel, deleted scenes, scene select commentary with Don MacDonald as well as the theatrical trailer. Additionally, you’ll find a DVD-ROM feature, Zombie Me. If you played with the feature on the Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl DVD, this is the same idea, though my picture ended up look more like the Joker in the upcoming Batman film.

Fido is a brilliantly done zomedy that follows up perfectly what Shaun of the Dead brought back into the horror fan mindset and that is zombies with big laughs. This is also a horror film for the non-horror film, one that anyone with a good sense of humor and a love for the ironic can appreciate, and I’d suggest if you’ve been holding off, you go out and fetch Fido right now and enjoy the world of zombie domestication with a big dose of laughter.
 

-mike-